Frederick H. Bird, 81

Investigative reporter, political aide

September 09, 2002|By Sean D. Hamill, Tribune staff reporter.

As a hard-nosed Chicago reporter for two decades and a political aide in Illinois politics for 15 years, Frederick H. Bird made a name for himself as a passionate, irascible character who fought for what was right.

Many of his friends and family, who saw him uncover scandals in Chicago politics as an investigative reporter and saw him fight to pass the state's first income tax as an aide to Gov. Richard Ogilvie, could only guess where the fire came from.

His personality was nothing like that of his soft-spoken engineer father or his refined mother, who cared for the family's Wilmette home. But in his 50s, he confided that as a young man he had decided "the world was a terrible place and he was going to fight it," recalled his sister, Dr. Margaret Bird Blake.

Mr. Bird, 81, died of complications from emphysema Thursday, Sept. 5, in his home in Walnut Creek, Calif.

He was the kind of guy who kept a bottle of bourbon in his desk drawer for a drink at the end of the day, smoked three to four packs of Pall Malls a day and walked around the governor's office in well-worn slippers and suits "because he didn't like to spend money on clothes," said his daughter, Katherine "Cricket" Bird Rothrum.

"He was a rough guy, and the drinking and smoking probably did him in," his daughter said. "He was just 5 foot 8, but he was a scrappy little guy."

He was born in Indianapolis and moved with his family to Chicago when he was in grade school, where his love for journalism was evident early on.

Mr. Bird was editor of papers in grammar school and at New Trier High School and Cornell University, where he went on a full scholarship until he realized he was learning more working at the Cornell Daily Sun than from going to classes. He left school after a year and talked his way into a job at the City News Bureau in Chicago.

After two years there, he worked briefly at the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun before joining the Air Force during World War II. He was a pilot instructor for French cadets for most of the war, rising to 1st lieutenant before flying missions in the South Pacific toward the end of the war.

After the war, he moved to Winnetka, got married and plunged back into journalism, taking a job with the Chicago Daily News, where he made his name as a hard-charging investigative reporter.

He made his mark on several important stories, including one that documented life on Chicago's Skid Row, a series that required Mr. Bird and a fellow reporter to live on the city's streets for weeks to help chronicle the plight of the city's poor.

He left the Daily News and the Chicago American after getting into one of many fights with management. Leaving journalism led him to politics, working for Ogilvie and as a speechwriter for President Gerald Ford briefly in 1975.

He spent much of his life fighting for issues he believed in, sometimes hurting his own cause by charging too hard, friends and family said.

"I think he was always so angry at life's injustices that he always wanted to make things right," said Sandra Pesmen, a retired Chicago journalist who considers Mr. Bird her mentor. "That served him well as an investigative reporter and in politics, but it didn't serve him well rising up the corporate ranks because he didn't kowtow."